The Twelve Steps for Crystal Meth Addicts

Book Synopsis: Addicts have been following the straightforward suggestions found in the Twelve Steps to recover from all sorts of obsessions—from alcohol and drugs to gambling, overeating, compulsive sex, and codependency—since the 1930s. Crystal meth addicts are no different. The Steps have guided thousands and thousands of us out of misery and into hope.
There are many ways a person can get clean or try to lessen the damage drugs are doing in their life—medical interventions, religious approaches, harm-reduction counseling, and other kinds of group support. You’ll meet fellows in Crystal Meth Anonymous who’ve tried them all. But we believe the fellowship and the Steps work best for us. The meetings support us in maintaining abstinence, so our minds and bodies can heal; the program encourages us to take action in our own recovery, so our spirits can heal.

While our fellowship has amassed a growing collection of stories and other readings that touch on this journey, until now we hadn’t written our own guide to the Steps, relying instead on the wonderful literature of AA, NA, and other fellowships. But after three decades, fellows from New York Crystal Meth Anonymous have put together the first guide to the Twelve Steps written by and for crystal meth addicts.

We’ve been told we must go to any lengths to get sober, but we’ve also been urged to “go where it’s warm,” to seek out recovery where we feel like we can relate. When we come to CMA, we hear our own stories. If we didn’t identify, we wouldn’t stick around. The same is true when we pick up the literature: We connect better when we hear echoes of our common experience.

We also hunger to read about the program in contemporary language that reflects the experience of people in our fellowship, who represent every race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability, and every imaginable belief system. In short, we needed a guide to the Steps that describes approaches people in our program use today. It’s in that spirit that we offer this book.

Whether you’re just reading about the Steps for the first time, or you are searching for a fresh perspective on something you thought you knew inside and out, we hope you will see yourself in these pages—and find a solution to the problem we all share.